Chapter 47: Ch 47 – Below

The sun was mostly gone, replaced instead by dark ominous clouds that were harder and harder to make out with each moment that passed as the sun slowly crept into hiding.

Devin and I had just sat tired from a lot of scrubbing and in Devin’s case fieldwork. He didn’t let it show much but I could tell to a degree. I imagine our fun back here earlier hadn’t helped that much either, not that I was going to trade that.

By comparison, I was feeling pretty damn good, especially sitting here with Devin’s arms around me. A few days ago this would have been nothing but a dream. Unfortunately, even dreams had to end sometime. This one, in particular, ended as we heard the soft tick, tick of rain hitting leaves and grass around us.

“Let's get inside before we get wet.” Devin said pushing gently to encourage me to move.

I nodded, and we both clambered up to head inside. We stood there for a moment as what was left of the sunlight vanished behind a sheen of rain. Only a slight vague ambiance remained as all of what we could see quickly became obscured by the increasingly dense downpour.

The last time it had rained was back when I was in a cave. I hadn’t really thought much of it at the time of course. Not that this was particularly special either. The sky just continued its downpour while we hunkered down in an old church watching. The roar of the tiny water droplets assaulting the old clay shingle roof was almost musical.

“You gonna stand there all night? Or are you coming downstairs?” Devin asked from the far side of the kitchen. I hadn't even noticed him move I was so engrossed with the sudden rain.

I took half a step towards him but then decided that maybe the reason this downpour felt different was that I needed it to be. I stopped and gave Devin a small smile, “I’ll be down in a bit. I think for a little I just want to listen to the rain.”

Devin frowned, “You sure? I was thinking maybe…” He said considering something. But maybe he noticed something about my expression and paused, “Alright, well I’ll be downstairs when you are done.”

“Thanks.” I replied watching him go. Had he... No, stop! I snuffed the thought before they could bloom.

I wasted some time rinsing the dirty washcloth in the rain and cleared a space on the table of dust, discarding the re-dirtied cloth back into the bucket I set just outside the building rain refilling it. I took a seat there, just listening to the soft roar of the rain. It had cooled down even more just before the storm began, but my body felt warm inside. Even as the cool wind blew against my fleshy dress imparting its cold breath upon me.

It suited me well enough for the moment. In truth, I’d been so busy, and wrapped up with everyone, and everything I’d really not stopped to sit down and think. In some ways, it meant not dwelling on the bad. But the truth was if there was something I knew about myself more than anything, it was when I wanted to avoid reality, I did so with men.

Not that I was lying with Devin. I’d been entirely truthful. It was easier to flirt and make crass jokes than it was to confront things that were bothering me. It was easier to throw myself at anyone, and everyone when I wanted to avoid a heavy question. It was how I avoided problems.

Or simply, when all I wanted to think about was sex, it probably meant that I was avoiding something else. I almost certainly overdid it with Gerl. Both with the dream, and with my shenanigans this afternoon. Had I not been avoiding things maybe I wouldn’t have been so over the top. Or maybe I would have? It was hard to tell where "overdoing it" and "just doing it" was. Trying to be honest about how I was feeling was difficult when my observations came from a lifetime of experience but no memories to draw comparisons with.

As for Gerl, what was done there, was done. I didn’t know if I’d see him again, even if I did I doubted it would be anytime soon. So far all I could say for the moment was I probably should apologize, if only because I felt bad about him running off.

With that decided I let my mind just relax, the tension and the tightness slowly unwinding. Then the tears came. I’d been avoiding this since we left that prison. I wasn’t sure these tears were for Kay, for Joan, or even for Bella. But for the moment I just let them come. They didn’t resist, falling to the floor as the soft light of the moon emerged somewhere beyond the sheen of rain, and filtered through the rainstorm to make give the whole world behind the open doorway a surreal almost ghostly presence.

After a while, the tears ran dry and I brushed my cheeks dry with a hand. I felt a little better, just knowing I’d gotten a little bit of what was tied up inside out of my system. Maybe I'd need to do this a few more times... maybe I should talk about it with Devin? I didn't really want to do any of that. It would require sorting through things, something I was presently avoiding.

“Is the door open?” A mental voice rudely interrupted my private thoughts.

I glanced back towards the front not really thinking about the fact that the door was quite literally broken. “Yes. Are you here?” I asked.

There was no reply but after a few moments, a series of very wet goblins charged into the church hall, one after another.

I stood up and walked into the larger space, it was by far the dirtiest place cobwebs and otherwise.

I glanced around as the last of them came in carrying something a bit larger than the others, so much so that it was hoisted between two of them, and writhing…

My eyes widened at the sight, “Naan!” I exclaimed aloud as I recognized Gerl was being carried by two goblins.

The tallest of the bunch approached, and I realized this particularly wet specimen of a goblin was Scout.

“Scout! What the hell!” I complained at the goblin leader.

Scout tilted his head confused by my words, “What?” He didn’t bother to wait for me to explain as he fished out a certain softly glowing gemstone from his pack he pulled off, without unrolling it, and held it up at me.

“Both of you… explain!” I demanded not caring which replied.

In the distance, I glanced over to see Gerl staring at me with wide eyes.

“Take.” Scout insisted, clearly having no interest in explaining.

I sighed, taking the dungeon core, and watched as Scout and the other goblins began removing their packs and stretching, brushing water off themselves, and sometimes just sneezing. They deposited Gerl on the floor much the same as they had their packs.

“They are not fond of the rain.” Naan spoke to me.

“Naan, why are you ignoring my question?” I demanded back over our mental channel.

“You didn’t actually ask a question.” Naan stated.

“I thought it was implicit!” I fumed, “Why do you have goblins carrying Gerl around.” I asked.

“Gerl? This man? He ran into us while we were approaching the town earlier to contact you. We couldn’t let him go and allow him to summon potentially dangerous reinforcements.” The dungeon explained.

“Fuck…” I groaned aloud realizing the shit show that was unfolding. I walked over to Gerl who was looking up at me in a kind of hopeful terror.

“Mi… Miss… Anna…” He said clearly worried about speaking even though he had nothing preventing him from doing so. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate the two goblins standing to either side of me were eyeing him with flint knives.

I leaned down next to him, “I’m sorry… This is my fault.” I sighed.

“I… don’t understand.” Gerl offered back weakly.

Well, I guess that was a step too far, wasn't it? Still, if I wasn't in the town, they wouldn't have come near to the town to speak to me. Still... Why hadn't Naan mentioned this earlier? "They came to speak to me...” I assessed not sure what else to say.

“We should kill him when we have a location where his screams won’t draw attention.” Naan whispered into my mind.

“What! No!” I replied mentally to the murderous gemstone in my hand, even taking a moment to glare at it.

“I don’t understand… you said you didn’t want prisoners. This is a prisoner. Have you suddenly changed your mind?” Naan asked.

“Damn it…” I groaned out loud. Then I replied to the dungeon, “No, this isn’t the same… I know this guy.”

“Can you convince him to work with us voluntarily even if we’ve already threatened him?” Naan asked.

“You did?” I clarified.

“I instructed the goblins to keep him quiet, they did so by informing him that speaking would result in stabbing.” Naan explained.

I sighed aloud, “This is a mess…”

“I fail to understand your problem.” Naan stated again.

“He was a nice guy is all… I don’t want to murder him for no reason.” I replied glad that our conversation was beyond Gerl. Then again from Gerl's perspective, I was just freaking out, wasn't I?

“I’ve already explained my reason, you are ignoring it.” Naan expressed.

Well, that was true, more like I was operating under the assumption that killing Gerl wasn’t a possibility. Yet Naan had already planned on murdering him from the moment their encounter occurred.

The fact that he was still alive was actually happenstance.

“Gerl, we need to talk. But I really need you to cooperate for the moment.”

Gerl nodded, “Alright…” He said looking a bit hopeful when glancing up at me.

“Naan, for the moment shelve murdering him.” I mentally explained.

“I suppose there is no rush.” Naan conceded.

“Alright… For the moment can you two bring him downstairs?” I said looking at the goblins flanking the tided Gerl.

They frowned but nodded.

“Thanks…” I said looking around taking in the sight as the goblins continued to dry themselves with varying difficulty.

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When the two goblins lifted Gerl up, another goblin who had been waiting patiently made her way over to me. Kosue walked over to me smiling, her head was quite damp as well, but unlike the others, she had her poncho, and looked surprisingly dignified by comparison.

Upon seeing her my mind immediately recalled something, “You all have those mushrooms and ink still right? The glowing glass vials.” I asked.

Kosue nodded, “In packs.”

“There's a cave down below, it's quite dry and you can all fit inside.” I explained. What the hell am I waiting for? What will I do when Jenny or someone else finds us? “Actually we should head down there now.” I said only pausing as the goblins gathered their things and followed me down.

Devin who was frowning at the sight of Gerl between the two goblins joined us since he had the only candle and we climbed down the ladder. Watching the goblins descend the ladder felt far too natural like they were the perfect size to both use their hands and feet one rung at a time. It was a coincidence of course, but it seemed funny to me.

Devin joined in by helping move Gerl down the ladder as he had the reach and strength none of the goblins did.

Once we were all down inside with a bit of effort the goblins unrolled their packs and we found the light sources we had made. Just a few but it would be quite helpful. Kosue held up a number of full mushrooms as well, “Grow?” She asked me clearly having her own priorities in mind at the moment.

“We won’t be here that long I don’t think.” I explained.

“Grow fast.” She said.

I paused considering it.

“No.” Naan insisted to the both of us.

Kosue frowned.

I patted her on the head, “We’ll find somewhere to stay longer term and grow some soon enough.”

She nodded and after a moment wandered over to where her things were on the floor.

The whole area was pretty visible with two glowing vials on either side of the room.

I wanted to deal with the Gerl situation, but the truth was we had one more thing to worry about first. I tried to give Gerl a reassuring smile, “I’ll be right back.”

He practically whined back, “Miss Anna… Please don’t leave me with them…”

I frowned, “Devin… could you make sure he's quiet and no one hurts him for a few?”

“Sure I guess… what are you going to do?” Devin asked raising an eyebrow.

“We are going to go down below and make sure there are no surprises.” I explained.

“Ah… right there was that wasn’t there.” Devin nodded.

Naan mentally interjected, “Explain?”

So I did, “Naan, we didn’t know if this place was really safe.”

“I see the path down to the river. There is a path going both directions from there.” It explained.

“Well, let's scope out the cave before we start worrying about everything else.” I replied to it.

“Yes, let's verify our location.” Naan agreed.

I grabbed one of the mushroom ink vials and started back down the pathway toward the river.

After we entered the sloped passageway, I could see the shift in the air as a dungeon boiled to life consuming the space around us. It wasn’t any change to what was there, it was more the outline of claimed space if there was such a thing. The dungeon body.

I noticed as Kosue stepped up alongside me, just walking with us.

I wasn’t sure what she was doing, and she just walked with us towards the water. Come to think of it, she had approached me earlier too. Did she want or need something? I couldn’t help but ask, “Did you need something?”

She seemed taken aback, then started fidgeting, “I….” She continued to shift her four-fingered hands in front of herself.

I hadn’t meant to be intimidating or rude, but maybe she’d taken it that way? I decided to just try and soothe her instead, “It’s alright, just tell me.”

“No, go alone.” She said after a moment.

“Oh.” I said realizing that perhaps that made a good deal of sense. Since Devin and the rest were by the ladder, Kosue had followed me since I was going deep into an unknown cave completely alone. Or least as close to that was possible with Naan in hand. Come to think of it, this wasn’t a great way to do this was it? I pressed Naan to my chest and the gemstone slowly sunk into me.

“Why this again?” Naan asked immediately, I couldn't help but think it almost sounded worried, or concerned.

“If I forget and end up talking to people with a massive gemstone around my neck something will seem weird. Is it really that bad?” I asked.

“No. Not bad. It doesn't actually bother me either way. When I first woke I was entirely contained within the rough stone of the mountain. By comparison, your flesh is cozy.” The dungeon replied.

“That's… oddly sexual sounding.” I replied.

“It’s not.” The dungeon insisted with overwhelming force.

I shrugged, “Alright… then why did you worry about it before?” I asked.

“It was more beneficial to be separate at the time.” Naan stated.

Was it? It's not like we were that separate. I racked my brain for a few moments of that but I didn’t quite come up with anything. So I asked the question, “What benefits?”

“Left inside of you, should you die I’d be forced to wait until your body rotted away until I could act once more. External, I could potentially slip away in the correct circumstances.” The dungeon rather grimly explained.

I frowned, “Die? Why would I die? I thought we were soul-fused partners.” I pointed out.

It took Naan a while to consider its reply. Then finally it explained, “Having a backup plan is always a good idea.”

That wasn’t wrong… but was it right? I decided to move on for the moment and let my mind consider Naan’s choices later.

Kosue tugged at my fleshy dress and I turned to her, “Okay?” She questioned. It only occurred to me now that I’d been just standing there silently after our short exchange.

“Yeah, you are good. I’m just busy with Naan.” I explained.

Kosue visibility relaxed in understanding, and I turned my attention back to the dungeon in question.

“So can you dungeon vision the whole thing? What's the deal with this place?” I asked Naan mentally.

Naan as it turned out couldn’t see everything, but with a bit of wandering on my part, up and down the underground river’s edge it got a clearer picture and finally explained what we were working with.

Simply put the large chamber with the river running through the middle was sizable, and divided entirely by the river. The water itself flowed through, creating two separate sides. Each side had its own bank.

“So you're saying there is dry land over there?” I asked as Naan finished its explanation holding out my light source over the water which almost seemed to drink it up with how little it illuminated. The dark mirror of the water’s surface at our feet showed only us, the ceiling was too high up to reveal anything meaningful.

“Correct. There is also a passage beyond, but I cannot see what is beyond that.”

“Well, that pretty much means it's safe right? Unless some river monster shows up?” I asked.

“Yes. I don’t detect any traces of creatures down here either. So I believe it's at least as safe as the other cave we inhabited.”

I nodded, “The only issue is that the goblins can’t just up and leave in the morning to hunt.”

“True. But I had them spend the evening hunting and gathering what they could.” Naan stated.

“Alright, well that's good at least. I guess that just leaves one last problem to worry about.”

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